About QUEST

QUEST is your source for current, innovative, and diverse science and engineering stories. We began as a multi-platform project that consisted of a television program, radio reports, online videos, articles and educational materials. Over the years, we broadened our scope to include public media stations from across the country, but have returned to our Bay Area roots. Now, our team of science educators and producers collaborate to bring you engaging, relevant science resources for educators, students and lifelong learners.

QUEST Staff

Andrea Aust

Science Education Manager

Andrea joined KQED in 2007 to coordinate education and outreach for the public television series Jean-Michel Cousteau: Ocean Adventures.

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Between working on Ocean Adventures and joining the QUEST team, she developed the educational resources for the 4-hour documentary Saving the Bay. Andrea graduated from UC Berkeley with a B.A. in Environmental Science and earned her M.A. in Teaching and Multiple Subject Teaching Credential from the University of San Francisco. Before arriving at KQED, she taught, developed, and managed marine science and environmental education programs in Aspen, Catalina Island and the Bay Area.

Lauren Farrar

Interactive Media Producer, Science Education

Lauren has a background in biology, education, and filmmaking.

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She has had the privilege to work on a diverse array of educational endeavors. Lauren's career has taken her to the deepest parts of the ocean to film deep sea hydrothermal vents for classroom webcasts, into the pool to film synchronized swimmers to teach about the pH scale, and on roller coasters to create a video about activation energy. And, she’s done it all for the sake of education. Lauren loves communicating science!

Sue Ellen McCann

Executive in Charge, Science

Sue Ellen McCann specializes in multi-platform productions and has a long and successful history working on local and national media projects and informal science education initiatives.

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She is a Co-PI for the Center for the Advancement of Informal Science Education (CAISE), advisor to the Bay Area Science Festival, a core member of the Coalition on the Public Understanding of Science (COPUS) and the Vice Chair for the Whitman Institute. Prior to working at KQED, Sue Ellen operated Studio Miramar, an independent production company with her husband, and at the Center for Investigative Reporting were she worked on documentaries for PBS. She is a distinguished alumnus of Sonoma State University where she graduated with a BA in Liberal Studies and she received a MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute.